Relations between the two Iberian neighbours were one of the main subjects Portugal's recent elections won by outgoing socialist prime minister José Sócrates. Seen from Barcelona, the result is proof of a desire for greater integration in the peninsula, writes analyst Enric Juliana. Pan-Iberism has won the Portuguese elections. Not the Iberian federalism envisioned by such diverse personalities as Fernando Pessoa and Agustí Calvet Gaziel, Henriques Moreira and Francesc Pi i Margall, Oliveira Martins and Francesc Macià, but modern economic Iberism, the close intertwining of Spanish and Portuguese interests since they joined the European Economic Community simultaneously in 1986. The business sector has put its money on José Sócrates ensuring the irreversible economic integration of the peninsula. And those Portuguese tired of the Socialist leader's school of Zapatero style of spin were unable to put forward a persuasive centre-left alternative via their own champion Manuela Ferreira Leite, operated by remote-control by the Portuguese president, Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
Relations between the two Iberian neighbours were one of the main subjects Portugal's recent elections won by outgoing socialist prime minister José Sócrates. Seen from Barcelona, the result is proof of a desire for greater integration in the peninsula, writes analyst Enric Juliana.
Pan-Iberism has won the Portuguese elections. Not the Iberian federalism envisioned by such diverse personalities as Fernando Pessoa and Agustí Calvet Gaziel, Henriques Moreira and Francesc Pi i Margall, Oliveira Martins and Francesc Macià, but modern economic Iberism, the close intertwining of Spanish and Portuguese interests since they joined the European Economic Community simultaneously in 1986.
The business sector has put its money on José Sócrates ensuring the irreversible economic integration of the peninsula. And those Portuguese tired of the Socialist leader's school of Zapatero style of spin were unable to put forward a persuasive centre-left alternative via their own champion Manuela Ferreira Leite, operated by remote-control by the Portuguese president, Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
